David James Skellern

Last updated

David J. Skellern
Born1951
Sydney
Alma mater University of Sydney
Known for Wireless, WLAN, Communications Technology
Awards Norman W. V. Hayes Medal (1980)
M. A. Sargent Medal (2010)
Officer (AO), Order of Australia (2012)
Scientific career
Fields Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Radio astronomy
Institutions Macquarie University, University of Sydney
Website

David Skellern is an Australian electronic engineer and computer scientist credited, along with colleagues, for the first chip-set implementation of the IEEE 802.11a wireless networking standard. [1]

Contents

He is credited with a number of important technology innovations. [2] developed with colleagues which include John O'Sullivan, Terence Percival and Neil Weste, and in particular the first chip-set implementation of the IEEE 802.11a wireless networking standard. [1] This innovation has been described as a revolution in world communications, [3] allowing high speed wireless communications.

Skellern was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2012. [4]

Biography

He received a B.Sc. University of Sydney (1972) [Pure Mathematics, Computer Science & Physics], a B.E. (Hons), Electrical Engineering, University of Sydney (1974), and a PhD, University of Sydney (1985) for a thesis on A Mapping System for Rotational Synthesis Data.

Career

From 1974 to 1983 he worked in radio astronomy and taught electronics at Sydney University [5] and Macquarie University. [1] From 1983 to 1989 he held research and academic positions at that university's department of Electrical engineering. In 1989, he became Professor and chair of the Department of Electronics at Macquarie University.

In 1997 he co-founded Radiata, a company engaged in the commercial development of WLAN communications. [6] The company demonstrated the world's first chip-set implementation of the 54 Mbit/s IEEE 802.11a High-Speed WLAN standard, based on the research Skellern conducted with Neil Weste in the 1990s at Macquarie University [7] in collaboration with CSIRO. Radiata was sold to Cisco Systems in 2001 for $565 million. [8]

When Radiata was acquired by Cisco in 2001. he became the Technology Director of their Wireless Networking Business Unit, until 2005, when he joined NICTA (National Information and Communications Technology Australia Ltd), where he was first chief executive officer (2005–2010) and finally, in 2011, Chairman.

Public activities

Skellern was involved in debate [9] on sharing of the spectrum which resulted in the allocation of additional 5 GHz spectrum for Wireless Access Systems at the World Radio Conference in 2003 (WRC2003). [10]

Honors

He has held visiting faculty and researcher appointments at Imperial College London, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA, Digital Equipment Corporation Paris Research Labs, France, and British Telecom Research Labs, Martlesham Heath, UK, Visiting Researcher.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer for contributions to high speed devices and systems for wireless and wireline communications networks, [11] a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and an honorary fellow of the Engineers Australia (Institute of Engineers Australia).

He received the Clunies Ross Award, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2010 [12] the MA Sargent Medal, Engineers Australia, the CSIRO Tony Benson Award for Individual Achievement in ICT and the CSIRO Medal, and the Norman W V Hayes Medal, Institute of Radio and Electronic Engineers, 1980.

In 2012, he received the Order of Australia. [4] In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University.

David Skellern was awarded the 2017 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award (with John O'Sullivan) "for pioneering contributions to high-speed wireless LAN technology."

He won the 2010 M A Sargent Medal.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IEEE 802.11</span> Wireless network standard

IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication. The standard and amendments provide the basis for wireless network products using the Wi-Fi brand and are the world's most widely used wireless computer networking standards. IEEE 802.11 is used in most home and office networks to allow laptops, printers, smartphones, and other devices to communicate with each other and access the Internet without connecting wires. IEEE 802.11 is also a basis for vehicle-based communication networks with IEEE 802.11p.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wi-Fi</span> Wireless local area network

Wi-Fi is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves. These are the most widely used computer networks, used globally in home and small office networks to link devices and to provide Internet access with wireless routers and wireless access points in public places such as coffee shops, hotels, libraries, and airports to provide visitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSIRO</span> Federal government agency for scientific research in Australia

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research.

Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductor chips for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. The company was founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and private industry. The company was renamed Atheros Communications in 2000 and it completed an initial public offering in February 2004, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol ATHR.

A wide variety of different wireless data technologies exist, some in direct competition with one another, others designed for specific applications. Wireless technologies can be evaluated by a variety of different metrics of which some are described in this entry.

IEEE 802.11a-1999 or 802.11a was an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless local network specifications that defined requirements for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system. It was originally designed to support wireless communication in the unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) bands as regulated in the United States by the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Section 15.407.

IEEE 802.11b-1999 or 802.11b is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking specification that extends throughout up to 11 Mbit/s using the same 2.4 GHz band. A related amendment was incorporated into the IEEE 802.11-2007 standard.

IEEE 802.11g-2003 or 802.11g is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 specification that operates in the 2.4 GHz microwave band. The standard has extended link rate to up to 54 Mbit/s using the same 20 MHz bandwidth as 802.11b uses to achieve 11 Mbit/s. This specification, under the marketing name of Wi‑Fi, has been implemented all over the world. The 802.11g protocol is now Clause 19 of the published IEEE 802.11-2007 standard, and Clause 19 of the published IEEE 802.11-2012 standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melco</span> Japanese business

Melco Holdings Inc. is a family business founded by Makoto Maki in 1975 and is located in Japan. The company's most recognizable brand is Buffalo Inc.

Neil H. E. Weste, is an Australian inventor and engineer, noted for having designed a 2-chip wireless LAN implementation and for authoring the textbook Principles of CMOS VLSI Design. He has worked in many aspects of integrated-circuit design and was a co-founder of Radiata Communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John O'Sullivan (engineer)</span> Australian engineer

John O'Sullivan is an Australian engineer.

IEEE 802.11ac-2013 or 802.11ac is a wireless networking standard in the IEEE 802.11 set of protocols, providing high-throughput wireless local area networks (WLANs) on the 5 GHz band. The standard has been retroactively labelled as Wi-Fi 5 by Wi-Fi Alliance.

IEEE 802.11ad is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard, developed to provide a Multiple Gigabit Wireless System (MGWS) standard at 60 GHz frequency, and is a networking standard for WiGig networks. Because it uses the V band of millimeter wave (mmW) frequency, the range of IEEE 802.11ad communication would be rather limited compared to other conventional Wi-Fi systems. However, the high frequency allows it to use more bandwidth which in turn enables the transmission of data at high data rates up to multiple gigabits per second, enabling usage scenarios like transmission of uncompressed UHD video over the wireless network.

IEEE 802.11ah is a wireless networking protocol published in 2017 called Wi-Fi HaLow as an amendment of the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard. It uses 900 MHz license-exempt bands to provide extended-range Wi-Fi networks, compared to conventional Wi-Fi networks operating in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. It also benefits from lower energy consumption, allowing the creation of large groups of stations or sensors that cooperate to share signals, supporting the concept of the Internet of things (IoT). The protocol's low power consumption competes with Bluetooth, LoRa, and Zigbee, and has the added benefit of higher data rates and wider coverage range.

Wi-Fi 6, or IEEE 802.11ax, is the latest IEEE standard from the Wi-Fi Alliance, for wireless networks (WLANs). It operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, with an extended version, Wi-Fi 6E, that adds the 6 GHz band. It is an upgrade from Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), with improvements for better performance in crowded places. Wi-Fi 6 covers frequencies in license-exempt bands between 1 and 7.125 GHz, including the commonly used 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, as well as the broader 6 GHz band.

Takuro Sato from Waseda University. He received the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics engineering from Niigata University. He was a member of Research and Development Laboratories, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., in Tokyo, Japan, where he worked on PCM transmission equipment, mobile telephone and standardization of mobile data transmission and CDMA system for international standardization committee.

The M. A. Sargent Medal is awarded by Engineers Australia for longstanding eminence in science or the practice of electrical engineering. It is named in honour of Michael Anthony (Mike) Sargent, an outstanding Australian electrical engineer. The medal is the highest award of the Electrical College board of Engineers Australia.

The Norman W. V. Hayes Medal was awarded by the Institution of Radio and Electronics Engineers (IREE), Australia, awarded annually for the most meritorious paper published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Radio and Electronics Engineers Australia during the preceding year. Adjudication alternated between the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (London). It was named in honour of Norman William Victor Hayes (1891-1950) who was originally communications engineer at the Postmaster-General's Department, Australia, and then later president of the Institution of Radio and Electronics Engineers until his death. The inaugural medal was in 1951.

RF CMOS is a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) technology that integrates radio-frequency (RF), analog and digital electronics on a mixed-signal CMOS RF circuit chip. It is widely used in modern wireless telecommunications, such as cellular networks, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS receivers, broadcasting, vehicular communication systems, and the radio transceivers in all modern mobile phones and wireless networking devices. RF CMOS technology was pioneered by Pakistani engineer Asad Ali Abidi at UCLA during the late 1980s to early 1990s, and helped bring about the wireless revolution with the introduction of digital signal processing in wireless communications. The development and design of RF CMOS devices was enabled by van der Ziel's FET RF noise model, which was published in the early 1960s and remained largely forgotten until the 1990s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Newsroom - Macquarie University". Archived from the original on 1 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Patent Database Search Results: Skellern-david-j in US Patent Collection". Patft.uspto.gov.
  3. ↑ "Future shop: The frequency will change it all". Theage.com.au. October 2002.
  4. 1 2 "It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours". Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering | Dr David Skellern | the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering". thewarrencentre.org.au. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Wireless Technology Prospects and Policy Options. National Academies Press. 24 February 2011. ISBN   9780309209656.
  7. ↑ "Wireless Communications and Networking Laboratory". Archived from the original on 1 January 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Cisco Systems to Acquire Radiata, Inc. - the Network: Cisco's Technology News Site". Archived from the original on 19 June 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ↑ "World Radiocommunication Conference Concludes Agreements Define Future of Radiocommunications". Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "IEEE Fellows 2007 | IEEE Communications Society".
  12. ↑ "Clunies Ross Awards, David Skellern and Neil Weste | Innovations | ABC Radio Australia". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.